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Dramatis Personae
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/ Home / Library / Complete Shakespeare / The Taming of the Shrew / Act IV Scene IV
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The Taming of the Shrew: Act 4 Scene 4
Scene IV Padua. Before BAPTISTA'S house.
- [Enter TRANIO, and the Pedant dressed like VINCENTIO]
- TRANIO
- Sir, this is the house: please it you that I call?
- PEDANT
- Ay, what else? and but I be deceived
- Signior Baptista may remember me,
- Near twenty years ago, in Genoa,
- Where we were lodgers at the Pegasus.
- TRANIO
- 'Tis well; and hold your own, in any case,
- With such austerity as 'longeth to a father.
- PEDANT
- I warrant you.
- [Enter BIONDELLO]
- But, sir, here comes your boy;
- 'Twere good he were school'd.
- TRANIO
- Fear you not him. Sirrah Biondello,
- Now do your duty throughly, I advise you:
- Imagine 'twere the right Vincentio.
- BIONDELLO
- Tut, fear not me.
- TRANIO
- But hast thou done thy errand to Baptista?
- BIONDELLO
- I told him that your father was at Venice,
- And that you look'd for him this day in Padua.
- TRANIO
- Thou'rt a tall fellow: hold thee that to drink.
- Here comes Baptista: set your countenance, sir.
- [Enter BAPTISTA and LUCENTIO]
- Signior Baptista, you are happily met.
- [To the Pedant]
- Sir, this is the gentleman I told you of:
- I pray you stand good father to me now,
- Give me Bianca for my patrimony.
- PEDANT
- Soft son!
- Sir, by your leave: having come to Padua
- To gather in some debts, my son Lucentio
- Made me acquainted with a weighty cause
- Of love between your daughter and himself:
- And, for the good report I hear of you
- And for the love he beareth to your daughter
- And she to him, to stay him not too long,
- I am content, in a good father's care,
- To have him match'd; and if you please to like
- No worse than I, upon some agreement
- Me shall you find ready and willing
- With one consent to have her so bestow'd;
- For curious I cannot be with you,
- Signior Baptista, of whom I hear so well.
- BAPTISTA
- Sir, pardon me in what I have to say:
- Your plainness and your shortness please me well.
- Right true it is, your son Lucentio here
- Doth love my daughter and she loveth him,
- Or both dissemble deeply their affections:
- And therefore, if you say no more than this,
- That like a father you will deal with him
- And pass my daughter a sufficient dower,
- The match is made, and all is done:
- Your son shall have my daughter with consent.
- TRANIO
- I thank you, sir. Where then do you know best
- We be affied and such assurance ta'en
- As shall with either part's agreement stand?
- BAPTISTA
- Not in my house, Lucentio; for, you know,
- Pitchers have ears, and I have many servants:
- Besides, old Gremio is hearkening still;
- And happily we might be interrupted.
- TRANIO
- Then at my lodging, an it like you:
- There doth my father lie; and there, this night,
- We'll pass the business privately and well.
- Send for your daughter by your servant here:
- My boy shall fetch the scrivener presently.
- The worst is this, that, at so slender warning,
- You are like to have a thin and slender pittance.
- BAPTISTA
- It likes me well. Biondello, hie you home,
- And bid Bianca make her ready straight;
- And, if you will, tell what hath happened,
- Lucentio's father is arrived in Padua,
- And how she's like to be Lucentio's wife.
- BIONDELLO
- I pray the gods she may with all my heart!
- TRANIO
- Dally not with the gods, but get thee gone.
- [Exit BIONDELLO]
- Signior Baptista, shall I lead the way?
- Welcome! one mess is like to be your cheer:
- Come, sir; we will better it in Pisa.
- BAPTISTA
- I follow you.
- [Exeunt TRANIO, Pedant, and BAPTISTA]
- [Re-enter BIONDELLO]
- BIONDELLO
- Cambio!
- LUCENTIO
- What sayest thou, Biondello?
- BIONDELLO
- You saw my master wink and laugh upon you?
- LUCENTIO
- Biondello, what of that?
- BIONDELLO
- Faith, nothing; but has left me here behind, to
- expound the meaning or moral of his signs and tokens.
- LUCENTIO
- I pray thee, moralize them.
- BIONDELLO
- Then thus. Baptista is safe, talking with the
- deceiving father of a deceitful son.
- LUCENTIO
- And what of him?
- BIONDELLO
- His daughter is to be brought by you to the supper.
- LUCENTIO
- And then?
- BIONDELLO
- The old priest of Saint Luke's church is at your
- command at all hours.
- LUCENTIO
- And what of all this?
- BIONDELLO
- I cannot tell; expect they are busied about a
- counterfeit assurance: take you assurance of her,
- 'cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum:' to the
- church; take the priest, clerk, and some sufficient
- honest witnesses: If this be not that you look for,
- I have no more to say, But bid Bianca farewell for
- ever and a day.
- LUCENTIO
- Hearest thou, Biondello?
- BIONDELLO
- I cannot tarry: I knew a wench married in an
- afternoon as she went to the garden for parsley to
- stuff a rabbit; and so may you, sir: and so, adieu,
- sir. My master hath appointed me to go to Saint
- Luke's, to bid the priest be ready to come against
- you come with your appendix.
- [Exit]
- LUCENTIO
- I may, and will, if she be so contented:
- She will be pleased; then wherefore should I doubt?
- Hap what hap may, I'll roundly go about her:
- It shall go hard if Cambio go without her.
- [Exit]
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